"Well, er--er--" stammered the other man.

"You see," smiled Dave, "the doubt hits you just as hard as it does me!"

"Oh, of course, a fellow who has turned opium fiend is no fellow ever to
be allowed to reach the bridge and the quarter-deck," admitted Hallam.
"But see here, are you going to report this affair to the commandant of
midshipmen, or to anyone else in authority?"

"I've no occasion to report," replied Dave dryly. "I am not in any way
in command over Pennington. But I mean to persuade him to report himself
for what he has done!"

"But that would ruin him!" protested Hallam, aghast. "He wouldn't even
be allowed to start on the cruise. He'd be railroaded home without loss
of a moment."

"Yet you've just said that an opium-user isn't fit to go on in the
brigade," retorted Darrin.

"Hang it, it's hard to know what to do," rejoined Hallam, wrinkling his
forehead. "Of course we want to be just to Pen."

"It doesn't strike me as being just exactly a question of justice to
Pennington," Darrin went on earnestly. "If this is anything it's a
question of midshipman honor. We fellows are bound to see that all the
unworthy ones are dropped from the service. Now, a fellow who has
fastened the opium habit on himself isn't fit to go on, is he?"